Modern vehicles include a vast number of sensors. Such sensors provide information about the operation of a vehicle to a control unit, which can take an action based upon the information. For example, the control unit may be configured to provide data concerning the sensed information to a user or to generate a control signal that causes an actuator to perform an action (e.g., to deploy an airbag) if a sensed value is above a threshold.
Sensors may comprise linear sensors or nonlinear sensors. Linear sensors provide for an output signal that is a substantially linear function of the physical input quantity being detected (i.e., Sout=a+b*Qin, where a and b are independent of Qin). Nonlinear sensors provide for an output signal that is not a linear function of the physical input quantity being detected (i.e., Sout=a*Qin2+b*Qin).